Disclaimer: Fairytail and its characters belong to the amazing manga artist Hiro Mashima. I own nothing but this plot.
Mood Swing, Mood Ring
"See that smoke slowly shifting in colors? That's magic trapped inside a little ol' piece of platinum band. A mood ring, girl. Care to buy it?"
Naive,little Levy Mcgarden marveled as the liquid crystals went in a series of sparkling twirls before changing into a mystifying shade of velvet blue before her very eyes.
"Whoaaaa... awesome!" Cana Alberona almost have to look away. How she loved seeing those bright golden eyes alight in wonder as Levy gasped and squealed in sheer delight- how she glowed in euphoric joy just by appreciating something as simple as a mood ring changing in colors.
It was no wonder a certain metal scrap of dragon was so head over heels over this minx.
"Why would you sell such a precious heirloom, Cana?" the question was so innocent and the way she looked at her with such gullibility ~
The brunette almost felt bad for deceiving the poor bookworm.
"Pfftt – Precious heirloom?" a snort was heard before she staggered back. " Yeah rrriiight. Apparently, I'm not in the right state of mind at the moment and I think I need rum more than that piece of junk you called a heirloom!" She pointed at the booze she was holding.
"Want it? Same price as this bottle of rum, dearie!"
"Wha- Thirty jewels?! " Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Don't you think that's too much for a ring?"
Emerging behind the blue haired minx, a gloomy water mage made her presence known."What power does the ring grant its owner, Cana-san?"
Cana Alberona let out a small knowing smile as if a cruel albeit plausible lie was already forming in her head. Two guileless woman. Two naive blunette who would hang to her every word without even thinking if they were even made up.
What more could she ask?
She smiled languorously, hands poised on her waist before raising the bottle in the air. " With this ring, you can know what your true love feels about you!"
To her utter delight, it did the trick.
Levy dropped her purse and the water mage gasped. Both mouths were agape and eyes as wide as saucer as the newly found information sink on their muddled minds.
Refusing to be beaten, Juvia Loxar squared her shoulder like an amazon preparing for battle. Eye set ablaze solely on the prize, she declared"Let Juvia buy the mysterious ring!"
Levy 's jaw dropped. No, no no! Why did she have to compete with Juvia of all people? There's only one reason why the obsessed crazed woman would adamantly buy -
"For the immense love Juvia have for Gray-sama!"
"Here's the thirty jewel!" Levy suddenly blurted out. The decision was rash but business is business and she needed to take a risk!
However, the water mage was adamant. When it comes to her Gray-sama, she would sell everything ever her soul for just a bunch of liquor!
"Jubia won't give it up! FORTY JEWELS!"
Cana spluttered the booze she was drinking and asked incredulously." Wh-What is this? A BLOODY AUCTION FOR JUST A RING?!"
"Fifty!"
"SIXTY!"
Cana's face break into a huge maniacal grin. Well, well~who's stopping them from being bankrupt?
"SEVENTY!"
"EI- EIGHTYYY!"
"ARGGH! You can have my whole wallet!"
Brown eyes widened at her sudden outburst. Then like a Cheshire cat who caught the canary, Cana smiled before tossing the ring to the smaller mage. "Sorry Jubs. I side with the highest bidder."
She was about to feel sorry for her nemesis when Juvia demanded for something more powerful like a potion for her beloved Gray sama.
Of course, Cana, being the deceiving drunk she is, mixed a rum with vodka, a little bit of gin and presented it to her. "There ya go, Honey!"
Trembling hands reached out to bottle. At last, a concoction that could make the ice mage irrevocably hers!
"What should Juvia do?" the trepidation, the urgency in her voice was clear.
"The heck -should I still give instructions!? Force it down that stripper's throat, of course!"
"Will it make Gray-sama fall in love with Juvia forever?"
Cana was having too much fun in this. "Naaaw. It goes like this. You make him dead drunk – then you take advantage of him."
It was as good as any love potion.
Levy shook her head. As much as she admired the water mage's persistence and undying love for Gray, she wouldn't go THAT FAR for a man who refuses to even notice her, would she?
She stopped and looked at the ring she held in her hand.
Hypocriteeee!
Golden brown eyes shut in mortification as she hung her head . She was no better than her! Infact, she had just bested Juvia –in buying a ring that she meant to give to Gajeel!
Where's the harm in giving an innocently gift just to know what the metal scrap feels about her?
Shaking her head vigorously as if to ward off such thoughts, she quietly slipped the ring in her middle finger. She bought it for HERSELF!
Levy Mcgarden wouldn't give such thing to a man she barely knew... let's not forget a man whose main features most women wouldn't describe as handsome or gorgeous but then, there was something dangerously enticing… captivating… about his wild features.
N-NO!
Her eyes went to the cold metal band around her fingers. Then her face morphed into that of pure unconcealed horror to see the smoke changed from a cerulean blue to a dark shade of murky blood. The color of his eyes. It made her heart leap.
How could such liquid crystals tell her emotions by just changing colors?
"Oi shorty, what you got in there?" Her heart nearly leap out her throat knowing all too well whose deep, sexy,baritone voice that belongs.
He watched in mild delight as several emotions fluttered across the bookworm's face before she profusely blushed in pure embarrassment.
"Gah-Gajeel~!"
Oh darn~
How this girl could make him feel hundreds of emotions in just a second was entirely amusing, he knew his looks could make even a soldier whimper in his presence – and judging from her stammering … wait - was that a blush across her cheeks?
Damn it all…
Expect levy to entertain him in the funniest, disturbing ways.
She stuttered incomprehensible things as the hue on her cheeks darkened even more. Cute. He looked forward to the future what else his teasing can do entirely to the furiously blushing squirt.
It was then he noticed she's trying to hide a ring. The sudden change in the color gave away everything.
"A mood ring? Pfffttt..."
She deliberately avoided his gaze, covering her hand – refusing to see if the color of the mood ring changed in the slightest bit.
"You- you know about it?, I bought it from Cana... It changes color depending on your mood."
"Tch. You seriously believed everything that booze chick told you? Oh wait, she was deliriously drunk when she told those nonsense to you, wasn't she?" he snorted in derision. "Seriously shrimp, how naive can you get? "
Her face crunched up in an irrepressible anger "Wh-what's it to you if I believe in it? Why- why couldn't you just ignore me if you'll just ridicule me?!"
"it's not that –"
"Stupid Gajeel! Let me believe what I want -!" she was about to turn away when he grabbed the hand with the ring on it. Blood drained on her face as it slowly shifted into a color she dreaded to see.
Her mouth dropped in unspeakable horror as she saw the ring turned an even darker shade of red.
Good grief. Ha-had she just accidentally confessed to the infamous iron dragonslayer!?
An intense blush rose to her cheeks.
"I'm not stopping you to believe whatever the hell you want to believe, shrimp." He growled oblivious of what had just transpired. "I'm merely saying you shouldn't waste your money for such stupid things. A ring that could reveal your emotions? Why would you need it if you already know how you feel?"
Oh no. Her breathe hitched. H- he knew...?
"Unless you're dim-witted to not even know what you feel in the first place."
Levy was gravely pissed. She wasn't expecting any declaration of love but to laugh at her after she had just inadvertently confessed? This was worse than a rejection! Seriously, Gajeel was already insulting her!
At the moment, she was actually questioning her sanity.
HOW the heck did she fell for this bastard, again?!
Lips quivered in distress before she mumbled in a trembling voice "W-well! Excuse me for being foolish aside from being weak! Why don't you bother someone whose smartass and strong enough for you?!"
How could she even consider falling for a man as thick headed, smug and cold as his iron component?!She refused to believe what she felt for this man. Deep inside, she hope – fervently expect that the ring will reveal a bland color – just a solid proof that she was not in denial.
Yet the dark crimson hue the ring had shown her was all the evidence she needed to see.
"Alright, alright… let me get it right." He growled hating the fact that he had been the cause of her pain again. " I'll tell you what, bookworm. You don't need to rely on this bullcrap of a ring. What I want to say, it's just an excuse most dumb people use simply for the plain reason they DON'T want to admit what they already know."
"W-what?" the gears in her mind had long stopped functioning the moment he explained everything in simple, comprehensible details and as much she hated to admit it ~ that deep masculine voice quiet turned her on.
"I- I don't get what you're..."
"Geeez, for a bookworm you really are dense! This crap lacrima infused ring –"
"-it doesn't even have any lacrima-"
"MY POINT, EXACTLY!" There was a stunned silence before he incredulously asked. "Wait- then how da fuck can this thing change color –"
"I think ... I think it might contains thermotropic liquid crystal." Then it dawned on her. "Yes! It's the only valid explanation why it would change color!"
Pity, her mind functioned a little too late.
"I see! It works like a thermometer! It changes just as our body temperature changes." She babbled incoherently. "And these slight differences in temperatures causes the crystal to have different wavelength to the light that - "
His patience wearing thin, he abruptly pressed his thumb against her lips to shut her up. However, since there was a large awkward difference in their size, he accidentally squashed her cute nose with his thumb.
Metallic crimson eyes twitched ever so slightly as the squirt gave him an intimidating glare.
Oops. So much for following dumb love advice from Lily.
Clearing his throat as if nothing had happened, Gajeel looked at her square in the eye. "Listen to me shorty, listen right now and hear every word I'm going to say... THIS stupid ring doesn't reveal any emotion you aren't aware of yourself. Do you seriously rely your fate on a piece of crap and actually believe whatever the heck it shows you? It's the same when you stupidly flip a coin when you already know what your decision is!"
Brown golden eyes widened in realization at what the man was implying before her.
"Let's make a bet, shall we? Gimme the ring and I'll wager the color won't change at all. If I win, I get to eat your iron solid script for a month."
" And if it changes?"
"Then, I'll seriously look if there's a lacrima inside its–"
"No -no! If it does change, what do I get?"
He paused then shrugged.
"Whatever the heck you want. Reading glasses, rare books, fountain pens -name the price and it's yours."
The offer was too good to be true but deep down Levy wished the mood ring wouldn't change. She didn't care if she needed to supply him all the iron he wants.
She simply wanted him to feel exactly how she felt.
Taking her hand, he removed the ring from her. It was a simple gesture yet she felt jolts of electricity went through her at his innocent touch. Levy fell silent as she waited for the verdict.
An arrogant chuckle was heard.
"Told ya, it didn't even changed at all."
Her jaw dropped. W-what?
" It's still red. "
She looked up and her breathe was caught in her throat as she saw him wearing the ring. It's hue- unmistakably the same color as those wild maddening scarlet eyes she had secretly grown to love.
She could only smile as a single word tumble out from her lips. "Yes."
It was that day,that the fearsome,notorious Gajeel Redfoxhad unconsciously confessed without uttering even a single word.
Omake:
"Gihihi~ I trust you'll give me my iron snacks whenever I wanted 'em?" he had this gleeful (albeit bloody disturbing )smile like an enthusiastic serial killer waiting to finish his last victim.
Those magnetic golden eyes of hers looked at his rust metallic ones before her she laughed despite she had "lost" the bet.
" Gajeel... I'll give you more than just my iron solid script."
"Eh?"
Lips curve into a gorgeous smile before she materialized the word out of the thin air. He didn't need to know immediately what else she had given him that day.
Ignorance is bliss. Gajeel didn't know he had confessed. He didn't even know levy had already answered his unspoken confession!
Haha! Gajeel can be cute being bloody clueless and all.
Review? xP